Countering terrorism: ‘Literature can change mindset’

QUETTA: Speakers at a literary conference urged poets, writers and intellectuals to play their role in the fight against extremism. Literature helps in creating a peaceful society, they said at a two-day National Conference on Promotion of Literature of all Regional Languages organised by Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) on Saturday. Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, who inaugurated the conference, said the country is facing the twin challenge of extremism and terrorism and this situation requires the role of intellectuals to change the mindset of society. “Writers can counter the smell of gunpowder with the fragrance of prose and poetry,” he said. PAL chief Qasim Baghio said that they were working on promotion of literature of all local and regional languages including Balochi, Pashto, Brahvi and others. Progressive writer belonging to Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa province, Saleem Raz, said that the society needs to abolish the feudal system to end terrorism and extremism.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2015.